In Spite of Darkness. A Spiritual Encounter with Auschwitz

Kurzbeschreibung

Every November an interfaith retreat is held at the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps in Poland, where more than 1 million people, nearly all of them European Jews, were exterminated by the Nazis. Why would someone participate in such a retreat? How could anyone attempt to pray or meditate in such a place? In Spite of Darkness tells the story of five retreatants—among them, a Rabbi, an atheist, and a Catholic priest—and how they come face to face not only with their own vulnerabilities and complicity but with new strength, peace, and glimmers of hope.

Auschwitz – unique symbol of methodically perfected horror, and at the same time destination for daily streams of tourists. How can an encounter with this place avoid the banality of a visit? This question was asked by New York Zen master Roshi Bernhard Glassman. His answer: the „Auschwitz Retreat“. He invites people of different ethnicity and belief to face Auschwitz directly and without cover. The group will spend five days in meditation, silence, prayer and sharing on the very grounds of the termination camp. An encounter happens between Christians, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. Descendants of victims meet descendants of perpetrators.The film portrays five participants and follows closely their inner development. They are changing. Beliefs are undermined, old wounds torn open, reconciliation begins. It is no longer they who come to Auschwitz, it is Auschwitz that comes to them. In silence they bear witness to what happened there.